Gymnastics: Season starts with two wins

This article submitted by Maria Wegner on 12/9/97.
On Tuesday, Dec. 2, the PHS Bulldog's gymnastics team opened their season with a conference win over the Litchfield Dragons.

Paynesville fell slightly behind on vault, but quickly made up for it on bars and beam. The final score was 115.7-109.6. Since this was a conference meet, the gymnasts were vying for individual conference points that are awarded to the top five finishers in each event and the all-around competition.

The vault was the only event the Bulldogs lost to Litchfield. Senior captain Wegner said, "We haven't vaulted much this year, so we should start scoring higher as the season progresses, and we start performing our more difficult vaults."

It was in bars the Bulldogs began to pull away on, and they never looked back.

Paynesville's beam routines were plagued with falls, but they still scored three points higher than Litchfield.

Paynesville took advantage of Litchfield's new spring floor by tumbling high and outscoring Litchfield by two tenths of a point, 29.45 to 29.25.

Paynesville had two all-around competitors, Wegner and Larson. Wegner finished in first place with 29.55 points and Larson finished with 26.6 points in fourth place.

"I was pleased with the gymnasts performances tonight. It was their first meet with the new rules, and they dealt with the pressures of their first meet quite nicely," Coach Diane Dutcher said.

Paynesville: 115.70Litchfield: 109.60

Annandale

On Thursday, Dec. 4, the Paynesville gymnasts traveled to Annandale for a nonconference meet. They competed without senior captain Sara Spanier who was resting an injury, but still defeated Annandale 109.15-106.85. The varsity gymnasts' record is now 2-0.

Paynesville fell slightly behind on vault, 31.5-30.9. Overall the Paynesville gymnasts had clean vaults, but were lacking slightly in difficulty.

Bars went smoothly, and it was here the Paynesville gymnasts began making up ground. They outscored Annandale 24.25 to 21.0.

Paynesville lost a little bit of their lead on floor, where they were outscored by Annandale 27.55 to 25.9.

The Bulldogs dominated the beam, outscoring Annandale by almost two points, 28.1 to 26.8.

In the all-around competition, Larson finished in third place with a score of 28.6, and Wegner finished second with 29.0 points.

"We have a few gymnasts who are injured right now, but hopefully they will heal over the weekend and early next week, so that they will be 100 percent in Morris," Coach Haglund said. Paynesville: 109.15Annandale: 106.85